Maisie’s cape was finished in time for Hallowe’en and she liked it and put it on right away. She wore it out over her coat for trick-or-treating. Her costume was topped off with a light-up flower crown Rob brought back from a recent work trip. We’d carved our pumpkin on Sunday evening before Maisie went to bed. Rob had Maisie draw a face and then did his best to carve it. We discovered that the best tool for scooping out the pumpkin was a butter curler that I’ve had for years and never thought of using before. After waiting all week to carve the pumpkin that had been sitting in the kitchen Maisie seemed pleased with the result and we all had fun..

Maisie woke up on Hallowe’en and said “Today I’m going trick-or-treating with Daddy!” She brought home a candy apple she made at school for her afternoon snack. By the time Rob was home from work I had our candy bowl all set up, the last of the snow shovelled off the porch, and was putting out our pumpkin. Maisie was all ready to go too and watching out the window for him to arrive and for any children she might be able to see already out collecting candy. They headed out with her all dressed up and equipped with her Hallowe’en bucket (a greatly treasured object she’s had for a couple of years now) and knocked on a few of our neighbours’ doors. Unfortunately winter had arrived with all the snow on Sunday and it was a cold and blustery evening. After a few houses Maisie decided that it was really too windy for this to be reasonable and they came home.

Maisie didn’t seem at all bothered by cutting that portion of the evening short though. She’d collected enough candy to enjoy it and spent the rest of the night handing out candy from our bowl to the children, big and small, that came to the door. She ate her dinner with me, standing at the coffee table in the living room and racing over every time she heard footsteps on the porch. When we finally ran out of candy and had to turn off the lights she was bitterly disappointed. Emotions that were surly exaggerated by its being half past bedtime.